How to Host a Prom Birthday Party

I love to talk about this party.  This will probably the best party I will throw in the first 24.99 years of my life, as it should be.  The theme of my 21st birthday party was prom.  I rented out the Philadelphia Senior Center.  Everybody bought tickets beforehand, $15/ticket.  Approximately 120 people showed up.  There was a DJ, there was a photo station and it had the one thing that real prom was missing, an open bar.  Never could I ever have done this alone though, there was a team of people always there to help me out.  Towards the day of the party I actually had people ask me how to get invited to the party.  I figured that was a good sign.

Below are my tips for executing your prom-themed party.

Create a prom committee

You don’t need to do it alone. The first thing I found when I started thinking about this idea was that I wanted people to brush ideas off of, not necessarily do the work, but provide an opinion before I pulled the trigger. I came up with a group of three ladies with backgrounds in marketing, graphic design, and residence life. I asked them all if they would be part of my committee, and we met over bubble tea once or twice.

From Left to Right: Chrystina, Chelsea, Kate, & Jai

On serving alcohol

If you are going to serve alcohol, you’ll want to make sure that you have enough food to absorb the alcohol. I decided that soft pretzels were they way to go. They’re cheap, you can buy them in large quantities, and they’re delicious.

Do your location research

I looked far and wide to find a place that was going to allow me to bring in my own food and alcohol so I didn’t need to pay a vendor to make it happen. I also made sure to choose a place close to transportation so nobody needed to drive.

Don’t break the bank

If it’s a big party like this, consider the fact that your guests might be willing to contribute. The committee calculated all the costs ahead of time and determined it would be about $15/person. After deciding that that was less than the cost of going out to dinner – and realizing that it would be all you can drink, I decided to have people pay for prom tickets. This was also a way to make sure they were going to show up.

QA/QC the invite

Read the invitation 10 times before you print it. 10. Have other people read it for you. Check your facts. I printed all of the invitations with the wrong address on them. My friends Madison and Matt spent a whole evening helping me change that. Oops.

Get some help

Make sure that you have help the day of and the day before the event. Three of my friends from high school – Tory, Courtney and Kerry came up two days before the party. They helped me bake, carry things, decorate, and keep me calm throughout the whole experience. I’m 100% sure I couldn’t have done this without those ladies.

Choose a prom theme

Every good prom has a theme. I decided to go with “Let the Good Times Roll”. The colors were blue, turquoise, and white – and all the decorations and tablecloths were bought to match. Once you have the theme and the colors, everything else can fall into place easily.

Food to serve

I decided against serving dinner due to costs. We made cupcakes, mini muffins, brownies, and more – and then we bought a large tray of pretzels to provide savory options throughout the evening as well. This food was setup as a bar right near the drinks all night.

Drinks to serve

For a party with 120 people, in terms of alcohol, we should have bought 2 handles of rum, 2 handles of vodka, and 5 boxes of franzia. I assure you that I bought at least double that. Here’s the alcohol I ended up buying for my 25th birthday party. We also bought lots of water bottles so people could stay hydrated.

The playlist of the evening

This was one of my favorite parts – we listened to everything. We listed to Top 40 hits, NSYNC, 90s hits, Disney songs, Broadway Musicals, it was awesome. The goal is to keep it fun, make sure there are some things that are going to get people out of their chairs, and to allow requests throughout the evening to keep it more interactive.

Activities for the dance

Besides dancing we played one ice breaker even at the party. I’m a huge fan of Never Have I Ever and I decided it would be a great game for everybody to get to know people at the party. I put about 40 pieces of construction paper in a large circle and had everybody stand on one. Then I used a microphone to say pre-written Never Have I Evers and if somebody had done it they had to move around the circle. The first one to make it back to the spot they started in won a small prize. Here’s the list of questions I used to keep things PG13. In addition, we had a prom photographer so everybody could take advantage of corny prom poses for the evening.

Thank you cards

(My one regret) I really wanted to send everybody their “prom picture” as a thank you note, but after the party I was so exhausted and the thought of trying to get everybody’s address and send out thank you notes seemed too great. Never will I ever make that mistake again. I really regret that – and as many times as I’ve thought about doing it now, it seems stupid to send out thank you cards a year and a half later.

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Good luck with your own birthday prom planning, it’s a very good time, a good excuse to use your prom dresses again, and fun to pretend that you’re 17 again.